A
little later I met Anthony Duman. After the experience of the first "Monumentum",
he was dealing with his "Weltscmerz" project, with which he
was realizing "Metaphysical Baroque" and was drawing the essential
lines of the "L'Alternative Dramatique" label.
We went on experimenting for a long time, recording a lot of material,
among which there was the first Nothgate track: "Six Marble Trees".
Some months later we decided to present live our sound lucubration...
the debut – which took place in a Osteria – turn out a disaster,
especially for the unfortunate who came to see us! We alternated to guitar
and bass, time was signed by a broken drum-machine, and sometimes we touched
a mini keyboard connected to a crazy distortion pedal... this caused a
nervous breakdown to the shopkeeper, who asked us to stop it!
First demo tapes were released, and so did also the LP "Liturgie
pour la fin de la Patrie", strongly wanted in vinil... it turned
out a little bit difficult to find someone able to make it, because the
market success of the CD had forced everyone to drop LP printing machinery.
But finbally I found an old factory producing 12" disco-tailored
mix and signed an order for 100 copies plus 8 promos. The first edition
of 108 copies hand-numbered one-by-one and colored in green was immediately
considered quite esoteric... and the times were the right ones for this
kind of operations.
But later on we realized that the LP was badly printed and had problems
while playing it. I therefore obtained other 108 copies for free, this
time in black. But I didn't manage to find all those had bought the LP
(some were also in Germany and France), and so I exchanged only 60 of
them... the rest is a rarity!
Luckily enough, the gigs supporting "Liturgie" LP were much
better than the awful debut. In the same days, I joined Camerata Mediolanense
as vocalist and drummer. Members of the project changed according to performances:
in addition to Anthony Duman, we had also the basses Egon and Yann, and
a good part of Camerata Mediolanense too, until the change of direction,
which led to the collaboration with the "Der Blaue Reiter" brothers
(now U-Bahn Enfants).
During these times, electronics flourished, and we used it to change the
lugubrious sounds of our first years. Not much time ago, when "The
blue Builders" was released, with a modified again line-up, we had
a gig in our town... I must say that in six years the scenario has changed
so much that I'm now convinced not to play live for at least another six
years!!!
The new album ‘Terrarivum IV’ , preceded by the single ‘Forever
Charming’ (as usual not included in the album), presents big differences
from the previous releases, and a step towards the future of Northgate’s
sound. The arrival of DAN, the guitarist now involved, brings the band
towards a darker psychedelia.
The new line-up also include YLO , who used to play in Cold and author
of various Japan noise projects, and ‘IL BUE’, whose main
band are Larsen.
This new incarnation recently released ‘Oldkoala’ EP, which
bears sounds considered as the new expression of the group sounds.
CURRENT LINE UP
3vor – vox, guitar
Dan – guitar
Ylo – bass
Il Bue – drums & percussion